Thoroughbred "coyote" - Georges Malissard (1877-1942)

Horse bronze sculpture with a dark brown patina
old cast
Signed on the base " G. Malissard "
And titled " Coyote "

France
Early 20th century
height 41,2 cm
length 51 cm

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Biography :
Georges Alexandre Paul Marie Malissard, known as Georges Malissard (1877-1942) was a renowned French sculptor known chiefly for his equestrian portraits. He was born into an established family of industrialists near Valenciennes. Malissard  was encouraged by the animalier Emmanuel Frémiet and became then himself a sculptor.

In 1908, Malissard exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Francais, and received his first commission to sculpt two of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s thoroughbreds in Berlin. He then moved to Paris, and after briefly sharing a studio with the sculptor Charles Marie Vicomte du Passage, he settled in his atelier rue Pergolèse.

Specializing in equestrian scenes, Georges Malissard then enjoyed great success, both with the owners of horses whose portraits he made, and with the general public. After the Armistice, the French State ordered the statues of the victorious marshals : Foch, Pétain and Lyautey. Malissard also knew how to model subjects other than horses such as the lynx, the Asian elephant, deer, wild boar, etc. Malissard was highly connected in the horse-riding milieu. Despite being commissioned by the French government to sculpt prize-winning animals from the Salon de l’Agriculture, the artist’s main interest and focus were the portraits of famous racehorses racing at the Grand Prix de Paris, the Grand National, the President of the Republic Prize or the Arc de Triomphe Prize.

Malissard regularly exhibited his works at Salons. Notable examples include the Salon des Artistes Français- where he received an Honorable Mention in 1919, the Salon de la Société
Hippique at the Grand Palais and the Horse Show in London-where he was awarded the first prize in 1913. He also exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in Brussels (1910) and the Royal Academy, London’s 1930 Summer Exhibition. These platforms launched him on the international art scene so that from 1918 onwards he mostly worked to commission.

Additionally, Georges Malissard  was a coveted sculptor by some of the most important figures of the era. Monarchs such as George V, Alfonso XIII, the Belgian royal family and the Queen of Romania posed for him. Industrialists like the perfumer Guerlain, the chocolatier Menier as well as socialites such as the Duchesse d’Uzès, the Duchesse de Castries and Béatrice de Camondo sat for him. However, what brought him to fame, were the equestrian portraits of key Allied military leaders he was commissioned to do after World War I. He sculpted Marshals Foch, Haig, Pershing, Pétain, Lyautey, Franchet d’Esperey, Gallineni, Fayolle, Joffre on horseback as well as the Generals Weygand and Gouraud. The peak of his career came in the late 1920s, when he was invited, on two occasions, to design the Foch Memorials in Cassel (1928) and London (1930). After this, he was referred to as a ‘statuaire’, the most honorific title for a sculptor in the Third Republic. Georges Malissard was named Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor in 1933.